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How Producer Jason Blum is Disrupting Hollywood

With ‘Paranormal Activity,’ ‘Get Out’ and now ‘BlacKkKlansman,’ out this summer, Blum aims to turn low-budget films into high-margin successes

By

Alex Bhattacharji

July 16, 2018 10:21 a.m. ET

HE WAS NEVER doing the f—ing movie,” Jason Blum says into his phone. Sitting on a low-slung black leather sofa in his office, on an unfashionable stretch of Los Angeles’s Filipinotown, the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions shakes his head. “I’d rather not say we’re going out to him,” he continues. “I don’t want to bring a bunch of passes to Jamie.” Blum is discussing who will play the villain opposite Jamie Foxx in Spawn, a long-gestating project that Blumhouse announced that morning. Landing Foxx—who calls Blum “one of the most brilliant minds in our business”—is a sign of Blumhouse’s increasing appeal to established...

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